Pitch Black
by silentman97
Summary: Vale is struck by a virulent plague that kills all but a handful of people. When Roman Torchwick finds a still alive Ruby Rose, he is forced first into the role of caregiver, then partner as they struggle to survive the harsh reality their world has become. When an old friend appears suddenly infected with a strange parasite, the two are thrown into a bizarre quest to save them
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Yeah this is a relatively dark story, hence the title. Lots of death and misery, don't say I didn't warn you**

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Roman Torchwick sat on the patio of his penthouse suite, smoking a cigar and looking out over the city. It was an utter hellscape, the smoke that previously bellowed from the fires had more or less died out. There were still a few plumes stubbornly that continued to pump massive black clouds high up into the hazy orange midmorning sky. Melodic Cudgel rested in his lap, and not for the first time since Roman had awakened he considered lining up the gun to his brains and ending it once and for all. He sighed dejectedly, and stood up, perhaps tomorrow, but the day would not be today. Today he would do some reading have some lunch, and maybe take a swim in his pool. With his decision reaffirmed for the day once more, Roman stepped back inside and prepared for his day.

It had only been a month since Vale fell to the disease. It had been two weeks since he'd been forced to put Neo, his only true family he had left, down. the infection had spread through her whole body changing her skin a sickly yellow and turning her veins a putrid black. Roman loved her more than anyone and he refused to see her suffer. That day would have been his final one as well, had she not extracted a promise from him he wouldn't do just that. Where she was now she wouldn't be suffering any more, and he hoped she was watching him from up above after what she'd been through she deserved the peace. Just thinking about it made his grip on his cane tighten, but no he'd made his decision for today, he would stick to his promise for one more day. The water had cut off two or three days ago, and Roman only had a few bottles of clean water left. He combed his hair, put on his best clothes, and with a final check in the mirror, he was all set and ready for his day of work.

Roman went back out, turned on the generator he'd had installed up here in case of power outages and sat in the same chair and began to read from a book he pulled from his personal library. meanwhile in the background some classical opera began to play. He was already on his second run through the library and already he was feeling fatigue and wished he'd bought more paperback books when he'd gotten the chance. He was shaken from his reading by the thunderous crash as a heavily damaged Bullhead smashed into an adjacent bounced and the wreckage bounced into his pool. He casually put his bookmark on his place, stood up, placed his book in his chair grabbed his cane and made his way over to the wreckage.

Hovering high above, stood Atlas's fleet. it's ships pulled double duty as both automated guardians and floating graveyards. The ships' crews had proven just as susceptible to the disease as the people on the ground had been. The disease's vector of infection was unknown, but the pack of government officials and atlesian higher-ups certainly seemed not to be having problems with the disease as they turned tail and ran. Roman had managed to get a radio up and running, but he'd turned it off after a while. It seemed as if Vale had been entirely abandoned by those outside it's walls. A city of close to four million people, left alone to die. The last broadcast he'd listened to was the announcement of the location that the new capital was to be founded, as well as where the new Hunter's school would be built. Guess that meant Beacon had been hit too.

As a final means of quarantine the ships had been remotely designated to prevent anyone from leaving the city. Ironwood and his pet Schnee had left their lackeys to die while they'd spirited away Vale's council, seemingly content to abandon the common citizenry to die in the streets. It turned his stomach, honor wasn't really something he had ever really bought into. There was your word, though. He always kept his word, and as far as he was concerned those people, all those people in their high positions that abandoned the city to die, had chosen to break their word. Roman remembered now why he had always found politicians so enraging, They so flagrantly discarded one of the only tenets Roman held dear and they always did it with those fake sanguine smiles of theirs. Shaking his head he realized he was standing right in front of the Bullhead's cockpit.

The Bullhead's front was a burnt shattered wreck, it seemed that the automated defenses that shot it down had managed to strike the cockpit and thoroughly destroy the outer shell of the craft as well, there was nothing much that he could really see that he could scavenge from the exterior. The minigun seemed relatively intact, however. Intrigued as to it's true condition, Roman went back inside and came out with a small red toolbox. He then set about cracking open the nose of the aircraft. It took about twenty minutes, but he finally managed to pry the armor plates apart and retrieve the minigun and it's ammunition. it would take some jury-rigging but Roman didn't doubt this would prove to be a powerful weapon should he decide to convert it to his own purposes. With his new prize stored in away in his kitchen, Roman turned his attention to the main portion of the craft and decided to check its interior.

Roman hooked the door to the bullhead with his cane and popped it open. He stepped back as a moment later a body flopped out. They were barely recognizable with the extent of their burns but that mass of short yellow hair, tail and rock solid abs that weren't charred black was enough for Roman to recall a certain fight on the docks. It was probably less than two months ago, it felt like decades. As he strolled through the airship's interior, he found burned corpses of what he presumed were other hunters and huntresses. He found several containers of MRE's huddled to the back of the ship. He also found several emergency jugs of water stowed in numerous nooks around the ship, it seemed that they'd been planning to leave using Bullheads, so why had they fled towards the Airships, and not away from it where they would have been safe.

He was probably set for at least a year assuming he paced himself properly, this had been stocked for the whole group of Hunters to probably last at least a couple weeks. As he was carrying another jug of water out with a box of freeze dried salisbury steak, he nearly dropped them when what he had assumed to be another corpse suddenly moaned in pain. He looked over at them, and coming to a decision he believed he would probably regret later put down the jug and box. Roman gingerly tried to extract the still living huntress from her seat. carefully he carried her to his chair and set her down. He removed the clothes from around the burns and did what he could to ease the pain.

Roman was no doctor, however. If she was going to live, it would rely almost solely on her aura's ability to heal her injuries. All Roman had was a bit of burn cream, which he liberally applied and managed to cover the burns on her face and arms and was working on her shoulders before he ran out. It was sunset by the time Roman saw any noticeable improvement and a week before she woke up. Roman fed her himself and helped her drink the water as she phased in and out of consciousness throughout the week. He hadn't recognized her up to that point as almost the entire left side of her face was charred black. But when his emerald eye had met her sole remaining silver one, he recognized her immediately. As they stared at one another Roman couldn't help but begin to laugh.

"Of all the people in Remnant, it just had to be you didn't it Red?" she didn't respond vocally at first, her sole remaining eye simply widened in terror. After a moment she managed to choke out a single word.

"Torchwick."

"Yeah, it just had to be my penthouse you all had to go and crash on." Ruby attempted to move only to have Roman press his hand on her less burned shoulder. "Don't move, your aura's working overtime to save you, don't throw it away by tearing what few muscles you still have on your left side." To his surprise she complied with his request and went still. It would be two weeks before Ruby's aura healed enough of her burns for her to begin functioning without his direct assistance. However with the burns relatively healed, Ruby became a great deal more talkative. It was also during this time that Ruby explained Beacon's plight and eventual fall to him, as they had nothing else to do for the weeks it took for her to heal. Oddly, during this time he'd never once considered ending it all.

"Really, Atlas had its ships bombard your little school?"

"They said we were infected with the disease, then they just started shooting. We got to the Bullheads and then we just ran." with that Ruby began to sob uncontrollably.

"Hey Red, hey. It's gonna be okay. I made it out of scraps like that plenty of times. I'm sure your friends all-"

"No! No it won't ever be okay! Weiss, Weiss tried to stop them and they just shot her right in front of us, one second she's there the next she's-" Ruby broke down into incoherent sobs at this point and Roman quietly pulling her into a hug. She cried into his shirt, soaking it with various fluids, not that Roman particularly cared at that instant. Right now she wasn't some enemy from the past. Right now she was just Ruby Rose, a poor girl in a situation way over her little innocent head, with only his sorry hide for company. That night she fell asleep in his arms utterly exhausted, physically and mentally. He ended up sleeping on the couch with her clinging with a death grip on him, as if afraid in the morning he'd be gone and have just been a fever dream and she was in fact alone in this desolate world.

Roman discovered another problem as her burns became merely impairing rathern life threatening. Her leg was broken, and it was broken quite badly. He fashioned a splint and crutch for her, but it still required his assistance for her to move any significant distance, like moving across the room for example. After what Roman guessed was about a month since he'd found her, his power began to flicker, meaning he'd have to make a scavenging run soon.

"Red I'm going to be back in a little bit, so please don't strain yourself. I'll be back before dark."

"Where're you going?" Ruby said looking up from the book he'd given her.

"We're running low on Dust, I'm off to get us some." With that Roman departed. He walked casually down the stairs to the ground floor and made his way through the streets of a dead city, hunting for it's metal guardians. You see most of the dust had already been used up in the riots, but Roman knew of one reliable source of dust still available. With That he took aimat a patrol of atlesian knights, their mechanical precision did little to aid them when they walked into the perfect ambush point. Aura enhancing his strength and speed well beyond human limits, he flung himself at the four knights and managed to shred them before they managed to get a single shot off. Ripping out their dust cores and taking their ammo as well, Roman began hunting through the nearby houses as he moved towards the next ambush point. He would repeat this three more times before swapping to searching through houses, occasionally finding something of value, sometimes finding nothing. He was making his way back to the apartment, when the particular rubble of what was once a building caught his eye. As he examined the ruin more closely, Roman felt his excitement grow. While the structure didn't even begin to look stable, the rewards might well be worth it though. With that thought in mind he headed straight for the dilapidated structure.

Something was very very wrong. Ruby knew it after Roman hadn't returned and it had gotten so dark, steeling herself she took out the crutch Roman had made for her and began to make her way to the door to go and search for him. She was reaching for the door, only for it to open and a surprised Roman carrying a rather large crate with him to enter.

"Well, sorry I'm a little late Red." Roman set the crate down and closed the door behind him. To his surprise Ruby gripped him tightly when he'd gotten within arm's reach and beat on his chest to a confused response from Roman.

"I was so worried about you! What took you so long?"

"I was on my way back, when I saw what was once upon a time a pretty good bakery. I knew it was a longshot but I had to see if they had anything left in there that was still good. Now we can indulge in the wonderous fruits of my labor." With that Roman held out a small box of chocolate chip cookies for her to take. The milk had already gone bad and been discarded, so they drank from a pair of water bottles and lounged on the couch. With the dust Roman had scavenged they managed to keep the power running and, after unplugging a few non-essential electronics powered up a TV and DVD player and watched a couple of bad horror movies Roman had lying around. For just a few hours they forgot the world outside, it was just them, a couple of warm MRE's, and some chocolates Roman had been saving for dessert. As the night wore on, it began to grow cold as fall was approaching and the penthouse had never had good insulation. Roman retrieved a blanket and the two former adversaries huddled together for warmth.

By the end of the week Ruby was fully walking on her own, She also forced him to promise her that he wouldn't go on anymore scavenging runs without her, he tried to tell her she could still be too injured and they'd need him to go get supplies but she was having none of it. Over the following week she began using her semblance once again and set about repairing Crescent Rose, which had been damaged in the crash and Roman had lacked the skill to repair it for her. They needed some parts Roman didn't have in his Penthouse, but there was a hardware store a few blocks away. Roman was a man of his word, and so when he had a full parts list he lifted her up on his back and carried her to the parts shop. She had protested, but he refused to let her walk down the several flights of stairs to get to ground level. From there he'd set her down and led her to the hardware store. Not even realizing the implication, he'd held her hand the entire trip so that she wouldn't get lost.

The door was jammed, but the storefront window was smashed wide open. Roman climbed in through the shattered display, careful not to cut himself or Ruby on the jagged shards of broken glass. The interior was dark, the light from the window barely illuminated it. At the far end of the room in the middle of some crumpled was a rather gruesome sight. It was the remains of a wolf faunus, the body long since abandoned to rot. What was most unsettling was the myriad of tools protruding from the body. Roman simply looked away, put on a rebreather and set about gathering the materials they needed. Ruby, however couldn't take her eyes off the dead body remaining rooted on the spot.

"Red, would you mind-, Red? Hey Red, you still with me over here?" he received no response she simply remained motionless standing in the store her mind unfocused. Suddenly it wasn't a random faunus in front of her, it was Blake's body. Ruby wanted to scream, to cry to do something and make the sight in front of her disappear. Ruby's breath became labored and she began to hyperventilate. Ruby vaguely felt someone grab her and spin her around. Now she was locking eyes with a Green eyed man, the same one who'd nursed her back to health, the man she'd fought several times before, the man who now when she saw his eyes looking at her it made her heart skip a beat. Ruby gradually realized he was shaking her and saying something, and his words began to come into focus. "-Red please, look at me, what's wrong?" Slowly the trance-like state she had been in broke and tears threatened to flow forth once again. No, she had cried enough, she wasn't going to spend the rest of her life sobbing every time they stumbled across a dead body. As she steeled herself she became aware of a pair of arms wrapped around her. Slowly Ruby wrapped her arms around Roman in return and slowly her panic attack began to subside and her breathing returned to normal.

For a while, they just stood there, two utterly broken individuals, both of whom would no doubt collapse on their own, clinging desperately to each other to try and forestall completely falling apart. After a few minutes that felt like hours, the two separated and gathered the rest of the materials they needed to repair Crescent Rose. As they were about to leave, Ruby spoke.

"We shouldn't leave him like that." Roman looked at her, then nodded. He put down his sack of materials and grabbed a nearby shovel. Roman lead her to a small park behind the store. He dug a hole where what he felt was an appropriate spot, on a small hill underneath an ash tree, overlooking the rest of the park. After finishing with the hole he returned to the hardware store and extracted the myriad of tools from the body. Roman found some burlap and wrapped the body up in it. Taking a plank with him to serve as a grave marker, he returned and buried the body to the best he could. They were silent while he filled the hole back up with dirt, neither really knew what to say. The grave marker was blank, as neither knew his name. They stood in silence while the cold fall winds blew around them.

After he returned the shovel, they gathered their spoils and made their way back to their home. halfway back the icy rain began to fall, chilling them both to the bone. When they returned to the room, they were both tired, Ruby set the materials next to Crescent Rose. After they'd taken some baths, since the shower no longer functioned but they had enough water later in the jugs to wash up. Clad in comfortable night clothes the two slumped on the couch together once again. Slowly, the two looked at one another. Perhaps what they saw in each other's eyes was love, neither could really be sure. But there was something behind those eyes, some spark of affection and in the other's eyes. Within the confines of this dead city, that was more than enough.

It was on their next dust scavenging run that Roman discovered something that would propel them to embark on their own quest and finally receive some answers for what was done to their city. It was this run where the pair had encountered a woman who seemingly appeared to be in a near feral state, attacking anything that she could. She had ambushed the two of them in an alley and had neatly overpowered him, he was barely keeping her blade from cutting his throat open when Ruby spoke.

"Pyrrha, what're you doing, stop!" and with that, Ruby managed to overcome her shock and rushed forward and seized her former friend's arm, wrenching it away from Roman's neck and tossing Pyrrha to the ground.

Pyrrha turned, her eyes vacant and unfocused. Despite her best efforts she was weak from hunger, overexertion and thirst, driven only by a mechanical manipulation and Pyrrha struggled to stand. The moment her routine was disrupted, her strength seemed to evaporate almost immediately. She gave a small struggle but seemed to call it quits and soon passed out and crumpled to the ground.

"Roman come on, we need to help her." Roman looked at her incredulously, but after seeing her single pleading eye he agreed and led the way back to the apartment, where this time Roman carried Pyrrha, followed by Ruby, up the stairs. He set Pyrrha down on the couch and looked her over to see if, rather it was better to say where, she was injured. She had minor scrapes and burns all over her, but Pyrrha seemed for the most part to be in good health, regarding what he could see at least. While Roman was checking her head for any sort of obvious trauma, he felt a rather peculiar bump, it seemed to almost wiggle when he felt it. The bump was surrounded by hair matted with blood. Roman took some scissors and cut the blood stained hair off, and once that was removed he saw something completely alien to him. It looked almost like a slug, but it was metallic and had six pincers hooked into her skull.

"Red, You should take a look at this.." Ruby made her way over to his side and looked at the strange thing clinging to her friend's head.

"Roman, what am I looking at?"

"I haven't the slightest Red, But I'm almost certain it's not supposed to be there. Listen carefully, I need you to go to my room and get a leather belt for me. I need you to put it in her mouth so she doesn't bite her own tongue off." She mutely complied. "Okay, good. Now I want you to hold her hand and hold her down, I'm going to try and remove this thing from her skull. Warn me if she starts loosening her grip." Roman said gathering a bottle of alcohol to sterilize his tools, which consisted of a straight razor, some tweezers and a pair of pliers. He set some bandages and a pan on a table next to the couch. Roman put on a disposable dust mask and after washing his gloves, he set to work.

Roman began by using the pliers to remove the pincers holding it in place. The pincers were burrowed deeply in her skull, with each pincer removed a small trickle of blood flowed out from the hole. He broke the pincers so they wouldn't reattach themselves, and then slowly reached around the main body and carefully began pulling on it. It was slow to move, but gradually Roman managed to begin extracting the foreign organism from Pyrrha's head. It felt like hours and Pyrrha began thrashing quite violently as he got closer to fully removing it. Finally, he pried it from her head and was shocked to see what was on the other end of it. It seemed to be a series of thin silver wires, connecting Pyrrha's brain to the slug. All the wires seemed to be hooked up to a single 'mouth'. Cautiously he cut the wires using the straight razor, and each time a wire was severed, Pyrrha would jolt slightly. With the final wire, Roman took the head of the creature over to the hard edge of the table and smashed it a couple of times and after the slug spasmed several times Roman was satisfied the hellish thing was well and truly dead. He then took the tweezers and set about cleaning the wound.

There were several wooden slivers, coupled with several small rocks and a few metal splinters. Roman found all of it lodged in the area surrounding the wound and none in the wound itself. After removing the debris he began removing the silver wires and placed all of it in the pan. He counted while he pulled the wires and Roman was reasonably sure he had gotten all of the wires out of her head. Roman then bandaged her head to the best of his, quite limited admittedly, abilities to make sure the wound wouldn't become infected.

"We need actual medical supplies, I'm out of good alcohol to disinfect anything and I don't even have a single serious painkiller, unless two shots of cheap drugstore whiskey count. There's one hospital that wasn't burned down that may still have what we need. It's a decent clip away, so we'll most likely have to head out and return in the morning, with the night's approaching and we won't be able to make it back in the dark. You up for spending the night in a creepy hospital for the night?" After a moment of uncertainty, a new determination shown in her eyes as she nodded. Together the two packed food and water and set out for the hospital and would arrive at it's front door just as dusk began to set. Back at the penthouse, the 'destroyed' slug began broadcasting a signal to its command requesting instructions on how to proceed following the damage it had received. Receiving no response, It decided for itself the correct parameters and dispatched several squads Atlesian knight to extract it and it's host to undergo corrective measures.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, a pair of golden eyes watched the two redheads from the shadows, silently looking for the perfect place to make her move. Her sword clutched tightly in her hand, her ears pinned back, she refused to allow her latest set of sick twisted delusions to bring any more harm to her friends, not this time.

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 **A comment would be most appreciated. Thank you all for reading and have a nice night. Expect the next chapter in a month or so. Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

The the two redheads slowly made their way through the labyrinth of hallways and stairwells that comprised the hospital, as they tried to reach the central pharmacy nestled somewhere deep in the heart of the facility. there was an almost tangible sense of dread, as the hallways lost what few windows had been present gradually petered off. Thereafter, the hallways became dark formless realms, where only darkness could be seen beyond the small halo of light produced by their flashlights. There were no bodies, but in a way that was a worse sign, as there _should_ have been bodies. The hospitals had been ground zero for the disease, bodies had piled up all around the morgue and in the hospital in general after the morgues had been filled to capacity. Towards the end the hospitals began burning the bodies to ash in massive holes rather than leave them to rot, as there weren't enough hospital staff to deal with all of the bodies any longer. In retrospect, the hospitals probably served as breeding grounds for the sickness and helped spread it more then anything else.

As the two delved deeper they began to come across Scorch marks and sometimes whole sections seemed torched black, with one line running through between several hallways where everything would suddenly just abruptly turn from fine to a charred black and back like some freakish form of postmodern art. Looking at the damage, Ruby noticed several shell casings littering the floor behind a desk as they passed by. She bent down and examined it. It was a rather common low caliber dust round, nothing except it's location made it stick out as particularly noteworthy.

"There was someone fighting here." Ruby said holding up a shell for Roman to take a look at.

"It probably happened during the riots, seemed almost like everything was a battlefield then." Roman said shining his flashlight continuing to not see the one thing that most certainly _should_ be here.

"Then where are the bodies?" Ruby asked, hitting the nail square on the head. If this had been some sort of impromptu battlefield, where were the dead bodies of the losers? Back then, it was every man for himself, there was no way someone would bother with the dignity of a corpse while they were cutting each other apart for a loaf of stale bread.

"I was thinking that as well." Down the hallway something stealthily made its way towards them, accidentally stepping on a section of burned carpeting. The crunching was nearly inaudible, but with both of them on edge, it might as well have been like lighting a firecracker.

"Roman did you hear that?" Ruby asked, her eyes trained on the particular dark hallway that the noise emanated from.

"No, Red… I didn't hear anything at all…" Roman said as he primed Melodic Cudgel and focused intensely on the dark void in front of him. WIth the slightest bit of movement Roman jerked his hand upwards and unleashed a torrent of rounds into the shadows. A lone figure dove out of the shadows, barely avoiding the explosive barrage. They ran with inhuman speed and appeared almost like a mummy. Swathed in bandages obscuring every part of their facial features, barring their angry golden irises. They proceeded to try and swing their blade to decapitate Roman. He managed to step back in time and avoid the strike entirely. Roman began to duel this new assailant, sword to cane and was struck by a sense of deja vu. The fight was chaotic, the attacker was obviously skilled, but there was clearly something physically wrong with them. Their strikes were stiff and oddly unstable, it was as if her mind knew how to fight, but their body wouldn't obey them. She would bend and strike at odd angles, contorting their body in bizarre ways. Their duel was brought to a halt when his attacker was suddenly thrown back and slammed heavily against one of the concrete hospital walls by a well placed blast from Crescent Rose.

"Thanks, it would have been nice had you done that a little earlier Red."

"It's hard sighting in Crescent Rose in with just one eye, besides you looked like you had it handled." to which Roman puffed his chest slightly indignant.

"Well of course I did, It's not like I _needed_ the help, it was just nice to have it is all."

"Sure, Roman you keep telling yourself that." Before they could get further into their little ribbing they heard the attacker speaking, it was a quiet mantra, but it was gaining volume and veracity. "You're not real, you're not real, you're not real!" they said clutching their tangled mess of hair.

"Hey, we're real." Ruby said, reluctantly trying to reassure the person she'd just shot into a wall.

"No, Ruby's dead! I saw you die in the crash…"

"Admittedly, had she not landed in my swimming pool, she most likely would have ended up dead." Roman said, looking more closely at the now clearly female figure, she was strangely familiar, something about her face, it wasn't until he noticed something twitching on her head that seemed to resembled an exceedingly familiar ribbon. "Red, I think you might want to get a better look at her, I'm pretty sure that's our little kitten." Ruby's eye widened in shock before turning back, and getting on her knees she got to eye-level with Blake. Carefully, Ruby brought her hand up and brushed a few strands of filthy hair and looked at Blake face to face.

"Blake? Is it really you?" her voice wavered slightly, the barest embers of hope enkindled

"Ruby, You're real, y-you're not some delusion?" Blake's whole body went rigid at the realization. Suddenly Blake threw her arms around her former team leader and pulled her into a crushing hug. Blake smelled positively repugnant, dried motor oil and various antiseptics mixed in with a good dose of burned corpse and dirt, but at this moment just like the prodigal son none of it truly mattered. She who was lost was once more found. Roman felt profoundly out of place, as touchy feely stuff had never been his thing, but he elected to simply deal with it and await their return to reality. He had managed to count the number of ceiling tiles twice over before Ruby realized Roman was still there. Slowly, reluctantly, separating Ruby helped Blake to her feet, and Blake began leading them to the 'others' inside the pharmacy they discovered a harrowing sight. Emaciated barely aware, though still very much alive, and slumped against various walls, were the remaining members of teams RWBY and JNPR.

"How, how did this happen?" Ruby said shocked at the state of her friends. Roman checked several of the discarded syringes and pill bottles. They were things ranging from Amobarbital, a sedative, to a half empty container of Zydone tablets, an opiate and pain reliever, to a large number of Methaqualone tablets, a sedative and mild hallucinogenic, strewn around haphazardly. None the people present were awake, instead all residing within, to varying degrees, a drug fueled wonderland.

"We ended up here a few weeks ago, I think, it's so hard to keep track of things anymore. We got here when our Bu-. Bull-. our ship was hit by a stray round on it's wing. From there we ended up staying in the central building because it was warmest and we just sort of stumbled along…" Blake stopped mid-sentence and seemed to look off into the distance, seeing into a world only she could see.

"Red, Bring our little kitten over here." Roman said, bringing together a set of chairs for them all to sit on from the front lobby of the Pharmacy. Roman had found a drug handbook which described the various drugs found here and he was leafing through them trying to determine what the effects the drugs they'd taken would have on the brats was going to be in the longer term. As Ruby led Blake over and sat her down, Blake remained unfocused and non responsive.

"Red, gather up the pill bottles, and be careful with the dirty needles, let's see if we can't figure out what's running through kitty cat's system." Ruby complied and after a few minutes there was a sizable mound of various tablets, syringes and bottles of various vigors and tonics. Slowly they began sorting through the various drugs and settled upon a drug called Dextroamphetamine, most likely mixed with duloxetine which amplified the effects. The drug was supposed to cure narcolepsy, so useful for someone on the night watch who was afraid of nodding off. Blake suddenly spasmed and began shaking violently. Roman and Ruby grabbed her and did their best to ease the severity of her seizures, while they were restraining her, Roman felt her pulse and it was running at a breakneck pace.

"Roman, what's going on?"

"Kitten's probably having a seizure, turn her head so she doesn't choke on her own vomit." to which Ruby complied. Soon enough a orange noxious fluid poured out of Blake and splattered on to the carpet between the chairs.

"Hold her down, or I don't know, shit!" with a particularly vicious jerk, Blake's shoulder was dislocated. With an equally hard jerk, the sound of bone breaking was audible and her leg bent itself at an unnatural angle. This proved to be the high point, however, as the spasms tapered off soon afterwards. After a few more minutes the spasms ceased altogether. Roman took her pulse, it was incredible quick, but it was slowing down back to a normal pace. Roman took out a handkerchief and cleaned Blake's face, before throwing it into a nearby waste receptacle "Stay here, I'm going to go get a cast for kitten." Roman said, leaving Ruby with Blake alone with the other living corpses. She sat there clutching her friend's head in her arms, wishing desperately to awaken from this nightmare she'd found herself in. She'd wake up back at Beacon, and Yang would be there to comfort her after her bad dream. Then Weiss would call her an idiot or something, and then they'd get ready for school and eventually far in the future they'd be the greatest huntresses ever. But no matter how much Ruby wished, reality simply refused to comply and she remained in this pharmacy room, cradling her friend. The only person who seemed to inhabit the same reality as her was her old archenemy.

Roman returned a while later and managed to successfully encase Blake's leg in a cast.

"Ha!, that wasn't too bad was it?" Roman said looking over their handiwork. Never before had successfully applying a cast been so satisfying a task as it was in that moment. With Ruby holding firmly onto her, Roman then proceeded to wrench the shoulder back into place. The only response was a muffled groan of pain.

"We can't leave them here." Ruby said as the others transitioned from their drugged hazes to sweet slumber.

"...Alright, I'll see what I can do. Make sure the rest of them aren't as bad off as kitty cat was, I'll try and get something that we can carry everyone in without tying someone to the roof." Ruby proceeded to check the others and after determining that they were alright, Ruby retrieved a mattress and some blankets for herself. She was awoken to the feeling of movement as several of her blankets were pulled off the mattress and onto the floor beside it. Groaning and still half asleep Ruby spoke

"Zwei, noooo. These sheets are miiiinnne"

"Don't know who Zwei is, but Red, it's cold and unless you want to share a bed, stop hogging the sheets." a voice replied. Still too tired to think she pulled as hard as she could and ended up pulling the figure that had been sleeping off to the side of the bed into it and entangling them both in a tangle of covers. Satisfied her warmth had been returned Ruby fell back to sleep. Roman said just a few words before succumbing to sleep as well. "Well okay Red, guess you went with option B. I'll bet tomorrow morning's going to be hilarious." Just like a sitcom, though in his opinion, a greek tragedy was a better format for their story.

Sunrise came, and was promptly ignored by those currently inhabiting the hospital. Eventually Ruby awoke, to the feeling of something warm being wrapped in her arms. It was a stark contrast to the frigid fall air outside the covers. Naturally she began moving closer to this wondrous source of heat. As she settled against the heat and she fell back into the clutches of slumber, She was vaguely aware of a bright orange mass of hair that was now far closer than it was previously. An indeterminate amount of time later, Ruby felt her heat source begin to toss and turn much to her annoyance. Ruby seized firmly onto her warmth, but all that resulted in was her being exposed to the frigid air when her personal heater stood up and dragged her along with him. The noise she made in protest was described later by Roman as, 'like a kitten, whose nap you'd just disturbed.'

"Red… what are you doing?"

"Mmm, I'm tired… stop moving and talking so loud, lousy talking cookie heater…"

"Red, open your eyes, please."

"Grrr fine. Oh… hi Roman." Ruby said still not awake enough to understand what's going on.

"Red, while I appreciate the gesture, why are you wrapped around me?"

"Because your warm, and it's cold, can't you turn the air conditioner up a little."

"The hospital power shut off a few weeks ago Red, so no I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Mmph, okay, then just make it warm in here then and I'll let go."

"It think It'll be simpler to just pry you off, besides we have to still get what little medical supplies are left and drag your druggie friends back to the apartment."

"Mmph, my friends aren't druggies." Ruby said slowly, unwillingly, returning to the real world. Slowly the two disentangled and Ruby sat on the bed with her feet crossed, soaking up the last remnants of heat.

"Sure Red, whatever you say."

"Roman?"

"Yeah Red?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Well, we can't spend all day in the waiting room."

"No, why did you help me back there, why are you helping me now, you don't have any real reason to."

"Well, I don't want to go boosting your ego too high, but I will admit I've come to enjoy having you around Red." Roman said after debating on wether or not to lie, and ultimately electing to tell the truth. After straightening his clothes and offering a hand to help Ruby up, the two set about gathering the medical tools and materials that had originally brought them here. As they walked amongst the hallways they would come across the occasional corpse, the bodies putrefied where they had been left.

"Roman shouldn't we be careful not to get sick?"

"Sick with what the plague? Yeah I did wonder why I out of everyone seemed immune to it, but I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. We'd be sick already if we weren't." Nevertheless, Ruby noticed Roman taking more care to keep himself a few feet further away from the rotted corpses.

"No I just thought there was plenty of other diseases… So you weren't vaccinated?"

"...Vaccine?"

"Yeah, Atlas said they were running low and that's what Ozpin said triggered the riots."

"Red, there was no vaccine."

"What? But there is, they gave us all vaccinations at Beacon when the first cases appeared." By this point Roman had stopped moving altogether instead he merely stared at her, something was wrong not just with her words but her appearance as well. As she stood up straight, she was closer to his height then she should have been. Perhaps only an inch or two shorter. She looked at least two years older then he remembered, and frankly she'd gone from cute to stunning. What was he thinking, no quit it there are more important things to focus on right now. For some unknown reason it was as if some kind of static suddenly began looping inside of his brain and his thoughts kept wandering to Red, how she looked, as if there was some key detail his formidable mind simply couldn't grasp. When his focus returned to his situation, he found himself slumped against a wall, with Ruby shaking him, looking utterly terrified.

After that Ruby had forced him to sit in a wheelchair while she pushed him around the rest of the day, mistakenly believing it was physical exhaustion that had prompted his fainting just previously. Roman felt slightly embarrassed, but humored her so long as it didn't interfere too much in the task at hand.

Soon enough they gathered up the various materials and by high noon, they'd gotten all that they needed. It turned out Roman had managed to hotwire an ambulance the previous night and that was to be their transportation back. When they returned to the others Blake was awake and far more cognizant of the surroundings then the others, who once more had loaded themselves up to the gills on prescription meds and were safely off in their drug addled dreams. The ride back along the desolate streets was uneventful, even the sky was a dull gray ceiling. When they parked at the hotel however there were several bullheads circling the Penthouse. Roman parked the ambulance in the bottom floor of the parking lot and got out.

Red, don't move, I'm off to go grab cereal girl, when I give the signal I'll need you to drive down into the sublevel, understand?"

"Uhh, yeah, sure thing Roman." Ruby of course, failing to mention her only previous driving experience involved a go-cart at her birthday last year, or how that had somehow ended up with the go-cart being stuck in a tree at the end of it. As Ruby waited she noticed movement to her side and her eye widened in horror as she realized it was several paladins, thinking quickly she dove into the back of the ambulance to hide. It was already crowded and the unwanted inclusion of one more body was not appreciated that much by those already present. The machines approached and silently examined the ambulance. It would take a miracle for her to escape, as she saw the outlines of dozens of other knights that began surrounding the ambulance. Blake and Ruby readied their weapons preparing to make their final stand together. Just before they touched the door to open the door and look inside, a massive explosion rang out above them and rocked the building.

Immediately the machines cleared out, all heading towards the sounds of the disturbance upstairs. Roman appeared moments later out of a concealed elevator with a still unconscious Pyrrha cradled in his arms, sparking a strange feeling jealousy in Ruby for reasons she couldn't explain, he motioned her to follow him. Carefully, and by some miracle, she managed to do so without incident. Roman activated several discreetly hidden buttons that opened a series of hidden passageways and lead them further and further underground until they eventually came across a massive train tunnel that seemed to stretch on for eternity. From here they drove through the tunnel and came upon a Bullhead of all things. It wasn't a light at the end but as they loaded everyone into in and Roman made the VTOL rise up higher and higher, they eventually breached the surface and emerged a few miles outside Vale's walls and got to instead see to the calm visage of a clear winter's night, with Vale's ruins illuminated by the harsh glow of the atlesian fleet still hovering above. From there, he set the autopilot to arrive at a safehouse he had in Patch, making sure to give the airspace around Vale a generous berth. As he made his way to the cabin with everyone else Roman saw the seat next to Ruby was open, and Blake was busy running her hands over her partner's now filthy golden locks. Roman sat down next to Ruby and began to speak to her.

"You know they're gonna be pissed when they wake up and realize they're going to have to go cold turkey, right."

"Yeah, listen Roman are you going to, you know..." Ruby trailed off nervously.

"Am I going to what?" Roman said, looking at her confused.

"Are you going to leave once we arrive?" Roman looked at her for a moment, then began to laugh.

"Red, where on earth did you keep get that idea from? Do you think I'm just going to sprout wings and fly off into the sunset? I keep telling you, and my opinion hasn't changed yet, I don't plan on leaving your side anytime soon. Unless of course you're asking me to-" He was cut off by Ruby practically squeezing the life out of him with her hug.

"So, so you'll help me get everyone back to normal?" Her voice was hopeful, but still filled with uncertainty.

"If you're willing to put up with me for that long, then yes, I'll be there." This earned another squeeze that was equal parts painful and pleasant. Soon enough tiredness crept in on both of them during the long flight, and the two fell asleep in each other's arms as they sank into a long and pleasantly dreamless slumber.

* * *

In a darkened room worlds away from the dead husk that had once been Vale, a council of seven men and women was convened. The people present were members of the High Council of Remnant, the true governing body which gave orders that were executed by the various public councils. There was a placid air as all but one of the council members seemed entirely calm. It was that nervous councilor who spoke first.

"The secondary contained systems have both failed, it will be months before the opportunity for additional measures can be enacted." his voice was was that of a chain smoker with how raspy it was.

"Are we still discussing this?" A woman spoke to his left. Her voice was old, but held an unmistakable air of authority. "The problem will resolve itself soon enough." there was a general buzz of agreement when a new voice spoke

"How did the measures fail? I'm curious." another voice inquired, this one the voice of a young man. He was the youngest member on the Council, but he was held in immense regard due to his previous accomplishments

"The primary executor failed to perform as expected. They have directly assisted the targets, the secondary executor was dispatched, but you all know as well as I that when the initial plan is disrupted…"

"So it seems our measures have only managed to prolong the problem. Tell me, do you have a proper location of where we can find our little wayward wolf?"

"Negative, my suggestion to implant a tracking device was denied."

"Well of course." the young voice spoke up again. "We simply can't afford for anything to endanger the procedure, so certain steps needed to be taken. The first was isolation, the second was there was to be no sign of outside tampering, which can only be done if we leave no trace of our presence." He spoke as if explaining such matters to a child. That only made the councillor feel more and more ashamed at his failure.

The meeting moved on to other matters and the matter was eventually forgotten. As the meeting concluded all but the young man departed, it was his office after all, so there was no reason for him to see them out, they already knew the way. Pressing a few well hidden buttons around the office, the rear facing wall sunk down into the ground revealing a rather macabre laboratory. Possessing a tile floor resembling a massive shower various body parts and organs were haphazardly dispersed. In one corner stood a Beowolf, it's arms and legs amputated and forcibly kept alive only by the wires sticking out of it. Strapped to a bloodstained dentist's chair was a random redhaired woman in her mid-thirties. To the man immense pleasure, the drugs were just beginning to wear off. He dearly hoped she was a screamer, those were his favorite.

"Ahh, good you're awake." He said, in the way a doctor greets his patient. The woman's mouth was gagged and she managed a groan as she slowly woke up. The man walked over and turned on some accompanying classical music. He pressed a few buttons on the chair, and a series of metal joints extended out from the headrest and forced her eyelids open and exposed her bright blue eyes to the harsh florescent lights. "Oh my, such beautiful eyes you have." He said as he loomed over her. He turned his back to her and began rummaging through what seemed to almost be a sort of pantry. Various jars and bottles with liquids of exotic and mesmerizing colors. He took several bottles and placed them on a bench. Briefly the young man walked out of the woman's view and returned with several filthy needles, the filthy tips coated in dried blood. He began humming along with the music as he filled the needles with said various liquids.

"I do hope you'll forgive me, this is far from an exact science. But we're getting quite close to a successful operation, I assure you."

"Mmph, Mmph!" The woman began to panic and thrash about wildly against her restraints. He knew they would hold though, they always had.

"Now, now. Don't worry, this is all for the greater good, I assure you. Soon enough you will be lucky enough to be one with the cosmos, or so _I_ like to believe anyway." the nameless woman looked at him and as she looked into his eyes, their mismatched colors especially stuck out. Her terror only intensified as he smiled similar to how an elder smiled at seeing the rambunctious energy of a child. Without warning, he seized her throat and he held her neck in place. He then injected the first needle into her carotid and moved closely to get the best view on her eyes. As he watched her eyes slowly seemed to lose their color and become a brilliant silver. It lasted only for a moment however, and her eyes flashed back to their natural blue. Enraged the man slapped her face hard, shattering her jaw with the force of the blow. Walking behind the woman, he produced a cigarette and began smoking it. Taking a surgeon's glove off, he ran a well manicured hand through his head of short yellow hair.

He was a pharmacist, not even a surgeon, not like his father had been. He had inherited the position from that colossus of a man, and even now he battled with the doubts he felt the other council men and women must also have regarding him. As he looked up at the body suspended above him, he once again felt his purpose, so clearly laid out. There she was in all her glory, the first Maiden. Even now, a powerful ichor still flowed from her veins. Soon, he would unravel it's secrets and with that, they would finally be able to turn the tide, it would be a revolution greater than even the discovery of dust. Of course such couldn't be accomplished without sacrifice and as he finished his cigarette, he was seized with a new found vigor for his craft and set about testing his latest concoction and observing the results. This particular specimen lasted for almost three hours before expiring. It was then that he took a break while the paladins disposed of the body to grab a sandwich and drink at the local deli. While he was there he did some harmless flirting with the cashier, Mary was her name, as he always did every time he stopped by for his lunch break.

As he took his sandwich and drink back to his office and started to eat, he began to ruminate on his most recent major decision, and it's implications. Had unleashing the plague really been worth it? Of course it was, he came to determine. Those people had probably contributed far more to the survival of the human race than any other group in Remnant's history. Besides the immense service they'd done, there was simply no way they could allow for loose ends to go running about. Not to mention the data they were receiving was positively marvelous in comparison to the paltry scraps of data he had received previously. He'd have to thank his fellow councilmen for stepping up to the plate in that regard, allowing him access to so much valuable information was truly a godsend.

With his meal complete, he made his way back to his laboratory and examined his schedule. He frowned, displeased by what was next on the agenda, before sighing in resignation and going back to the chair to examining the subject. A huntress from Vacuo, a Gwen Darcy if the information on his scroll was accurate. She hardly seemed fit to be chosen to become one of his _masterworks_. Nothing to be done about it though, the council wanted their weapons and if he couldn't provide them, then they'd find someone who could.

As he determined an outline for the procedure, the thought of his lost wolf for some reason came to his mind. He'd made him to serve as a guard dog, viciously attacking anyone who investigated the city, looking for the dirty secrets it held. If his dog was acting up, well how about instead of fixing him up, they simply got a new guard dog? Yes, he could make her the new doggy, a bigger, stronger, better guardian that they wouldn't lose track of. With the plans now finalized in his head, he moved the unconscious huntress to an operating table. He plugged both of his hand into the machine and he felt, to his satisfaction the machines surrounding the table respond to his every will and thought.

Without further ado he began the procedure, choosing, as always, to forgo using any anesthesia. Ms. Darcy woke up quickly but found herself unable to prevent what was happening to her. He would go on to spend several hours fine tuning her every facet before she was performing within what he considered acceptable parameters. He had been right, she would make an excellent guard dog. By this time next month she'd be fully finished and he'd ship her off to Vale to better protect their secrets.

His last item on the agenda was wheeled in sometime just before sunset. The last subject of the day appeared to be some random street walker from Atlas. Seeing her strapped down made his blood boil, she reminded him so much of his whore mother. Oh who was he kidding this wasn't business, as he took out a wide assortment of various weapons and bladed instruments while madness bubbled up in his eyes as they became a bright scarlet. This part of the job was in all actually simple stress relief. As the first blade broke through her skin the young man couldn't help but revel in anticipation of the approaching, and all too brief, bout of pure unadulterated pleasure. The classical music repeated once more and as the woman's blood coated the young man, he added his own accompanying beastial howls of pleasure as he allowed himself to surrender to his monstrous true nature.

* * *

Deep in the backwater of mistral's marshy bayou, a pair of young ladies stood off to side of a rather seedy bar, sitting alone at an old rotted wooden table. They were meeting someone about the potential of finally getting back to Vale after their extended absence, and had been waiting for their contact here for the past week. One was an immensely short girl, bettering resembling a child rather than her actual age, she idly twirled her parasol around in a relaxed, fluid motion. It was her, and the reputation that preceded her, that protected the two girls more then anything from the various thugs and criminals that called this disgusting hovel their home. The other was dressed in fine expensive clothes, and was the only person visible uncomfortable with the squalid surroundings. something that made her truly stand out like an obvious mark here. Just as the two were getting ready to depart after another fruitless day of waiting, the door opened to reveal a massive bear of a man. Dressed in a fine suit with a red tie, the man strode in carrying what could be mistaken for a bottle or oddly shaped bat. It didn't take long for him to spot the two and make his way over. The shorter of the two girls smiled at him and her body language shifted from relaxed to excited.

"Well, It's been awhile hasn't it Neo?" the man said as he took a seat. She smiled sadly in return and began to sign quickly to him. The other girl devoted her full attention to the the man, staring intently at his red reflective sunglasses.

"I understand you can safely transport us to Vale correct?"

"Patch actually, but yes that's right, I just need one thing first."

"Whatever amount it is, I assure you once we arrive, I can access the necessary funds to pay you." She scowled when he shook his head no.

"I don't want any money, believe me I've got plenty already. I need you to do a bit of work in a high risk area. I take it you can handle yourself, ms.?"

"Schnee, Weiss Schnee." Weiss replied. The man let out a low whistle, no doubt recognizing her family name.

"Pleasure to meet you miss, the name's Hei, but everyone calls me Junior. You were on Blondie's team right?" Weiss bristled at the mention of her friends. After a moment she nodded.

"What exactly are we doing?" Weiss said, her mood having soured being reminded of old wounds.

"I need someone to provide security for a little muscle for my club, ever since I moved locations, the girls and my men just don't seem enough when a bunch of drunk hunters blow in wanting to raise hell."

"How long would we have to work?"

"Just a month, though if you want to stay on afterwards, I think we can afford to offer a pretty decent sum." At this Weiss looked at Neo for her opinion, and recognized what the massive Cheshire grin meant. She sighed.

"Very well then Junior, we accept."

* * *

 **I hope this chapter didn't give too of the overarching plot away.**

 **Review response time;**

 **Guest: I always do**

 **Iron-ninja: thank you I will**

 **Ghost289: as you can see they still have Pyrrha with them, that's not to say that there isn't going to be ramifications later on, but for the moment they're all together relatively.**

 **Matt Cyr: Thank you, that was originally an oversight on my part, but now that I've got a better idea as to what the overarching plot is, that will become a plot point later. As for this becoming a Romance… Meh, I don't see it happening, It's closer to say it's co dependence then truly romantic interest, but hey if you see it as romance I can safely say that up to this point that was not the intent of the hugs and other such touchy feely things.**

 **Shenkovitch362: thank you**

 **14: okay, here's some more.**

 **Guest: 'kay**

 **Until next time.**


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